Virginia House getting all up in your vagina (original) (raw)

WED 15 FEB 2012
Virginia House getting all up in your vagina
by Scott Wooledge for Milk Men And Women
via Daily Kos

The headline is not hyperbole. The freedom and liberty loving party is requiring the state to take liberty with Virginia women's vaginas. Women will not have the freedom to refuse.

The Virginia House passed a bill 63-36 requiring that women who wish to have an abortion must submit to a "transvaginal ultrasound."

The ultrasound legislation would constitute an unprecedented government mandate to insert vaginal ultrasonic probes into women as part of a state-ordered effort to dissuade them from terminating pregnancies, legislative opponents noted.

"We're talking about inside a woman's body," Del. Charnielle Herring, a Democrat, said in an emotional floor speech. "This is the first time, if we pass this bill, that we will be dictating a medical procedure to a physician."

The conservative Family Foundation hailed the ultrasound measure as an "update" to the state's existing informed consent laws "with the most advanced medical technology available."

This is totally medically unnecessary invasive procedure. It serves no purpose other than to humiliate and shame women and intimidate them from choosing a legal medical procedure.
Speaking in support of the bill, one delegate said:

"We hear the same song over there. The very tragic human notes that are often touched upon involve extreme examples," said [Todd] Gilbert, R-Shenandoah. "But in the vast majority of these cases, these are matters of lifestyle convenience."

It is expected to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Gov. Bob McDonnell has said he will sign the bill.

The House also passed a "personhood" amendment that declares life begins at conception, by a 66-32 vote.